THEO HUTCHCRAFT has ­revealed his lucky escape after almost losing an eye in a freak accident that ­required emergency surgery.

The Hurts duo had been due to film the video for their new single, ironically titled Blind, when a spike lodged just a few millimetres from Theo’s right eye.

Despite the seriousness of the injury that required eight stitches, he went on to make the promotional video and endured taunts from pals that he had been clobbered by a jealous boyfriend.

Still sporting the scars from the injury, Theo, 26, said: “I’m sure I have upset a lot of people but I really fell down some stairs, which sounds like an excuse.

“I was running and I fell from the top of the stairs all the way down and into an iron gate.

“I had eight stitches and nearly had no eye. It was quite horrible.

“Everyone I’ve told has gone, ‘Yeah yeah’. People kept asking if I was sure I didn’t just wink at the wrong girl.”

Theo, who has been linked to a string of women, including burlesque dancer and Marilyn Manson’s ex-Mrs, Dita Von Teese, added: “I can see that people are very suspicious but if I had got into a fight, I would tell them.

“I got so fed up with the reaction, I started to say I fell off a skateboard.

“For some reason, people believe that more than that I fell into a gate.

“It was a grizzly situation,” he said. “I was in Spain and went to A&E covered in blood. The doctor told me another half-centimetre and I would have no eye.

“We had been in Spain to record the video for the next single Blind. It’s a good job the song wasn’t called b******s.”

Theo discharged himself from the hospital against doctors’ orders so that he could take part in the video shoot.

“The anaesthetic didn’t work so I felt every single stitch go in which wasn’t very pleasant so I was like, get me out of here,” he said.

“Afterwards, I discharged myself as soon as possible and left.

“I had to wait until they had gone out of the room because they wouldn’t let me leave.

“We were making a video so I was like, let’s go.

“I have two decent Action Man scars that have given me an edge I didn’t have before.

“Having a black eye and stitches only added to the video of the drama.

“I had to see a neurologist. I have to be less clumsy, but luckily, the eye was fine.”

I caught up with Hurts as they prepared to play a show in Milan. The band are back with their brilliant new album Exile.

The follow-up to 2010’s Happiness, it has already been hailed a masterpiece by the critics and was only kept off the top of the album charts by David Bowie’s The Next Day.

“It’s fantastic,” Theo said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen with this album. We took risks and for people to accept it has been fantastic.

“We did what we believed in on the first record and kept that ethos this time around. It’s great to have that support.”

The album lyrics are said to be about sadism, sickness, possessiveness and envy.

Theo said: “The emotion is always genuine and there are always parts of the songs that are autobiographical. The first record is about heartbreak and loss. There are much more complex things going on in our brains.”

Theo and Adam Anderson met in Manchester while on the dole. Their debut album led to success in the UK, with tracks such as Wonderful Life, Stay and Blood, Tears & Gold delivering hits throughout Europe.

“The first album was informed by us being unemployed,” Theo added. “This time, our lives have changed completely. Everything is different this time around, but we did things the same. We went back to Manchester where we did the first record to gain the extreme perspective. We felt we need to make something different that would move us forward.

“We were emotional at the beginning but the extreme highs and lows have all fed into this record, which is darker, more dramatic and more intense than the last album was.

“Going back to where we were on the dole reminded us that we were two lads who wanted this to happen but never thought it would.”

Hurts are now heading on the road for a UK tour following a world tour that included Russia’s Chelyabinsk, the most contaminated city in the world, which has suffered three nuclear disasters.

“We went to Siberia and the Islamic republic of Tajikistan. We went to the place where the meteor hit a few weeks ago,” Theo said. “It was fantastic. There were huge crowds and it was a privilege to be the first band from western Europe to play there.”

The pair will play Glasgow Garage on Tuesday and Theo says they can’t wait to head back to Scotland, having enjoyed a warm welcome on their earlier visits here.

Theo added: “I love Glasgow a lot. We have been up there a few times. It is a great atmosphere in Glasgow and a very beautiful city. It’s fantastic.”

Meanwhile, Theo said they are keen to get together with Lana Del Rey.

He added: “She is someone we really admire. She is somebody we feel is at least on the same wavelength when it comes to what pop music should be.

“We have a great respect for how she conducts her artistry so it would be fantastic. She is lovely. She is really something to be treasured. She said in an interview that she wants to make something her generation can be proud of and that’s lovely in a world where things can disintegrate very quickly. We do that with people like Bowie.”

Theo admits there might not be a Hurts if it hadn’t been for a disgruntled member of Dexy’s Midnight Runners sending them a nasty letter on Christmas Eve.

“We used to be in a band called The Bureau and apparently this chap had something to do with a band called that a long time ago,” Theo said. “He said he was going to sue us if we didn’t change the name. We wrote to him and said that was fine. He could have a share of the £40 a week we were getting on the dole because we were unemployed at the time.

“But it was easier for us to just change the name so we did that and soon after, Hurts were born.”

Having been linked to Von Teese and Alexa Chung, he said he isn’t concerned about his private life becoming public fodder. “It’s bizarre,” he added. “It’s a by-product of what you do that people have an interest in your life. I never do anything I’d regret.

“You can be private and people don’t have to know your business.

“Noel Gallagher said that the second he stepped out of his door, he is at work but that is all he ever wanted.

“We’re not very forthcoming and that serves to give people room to make up very strange things.

“People don’t know what is true and what isn’t.

“I once read that we had been arrested in Ibiza. I was like, that didn’t happen. But it’s all part of the fun and games.”